Jurgen Klopp has received a stern response from the PGMOL after the Liverpool boss accused referee Paul Tierney of having a problem with his team. Klopp hinted that Tierney had said something unsavoury to him when booking the 55-year-old for his celebration of Diogo Jota’s last-gasp winner.
But the PGMOL ‘strongly refute’ claims that Tierney’s actions were improper. A statement read: “PGMOL is aware of the comments made by Jurgen Klopp after his side’s fixture with Tottenham Hotspur.
“Match officials in the Premier League are recorded in all games via a communications system and having fully reviewed the audio of referee Paul Tierney from today’s fixture, we can confirm he acted in a professional manner throughout including when issuing the caution to the Liverpool manager so, therefore, we strongly refute any suggestion that Tierney’s actions were improper.”
This comes after Klopp said of Tierney following Liverpool’s 4-3 triumph over Tottenham: “How they can give a foul on Mohamed Salah [before Spurs’ third goal]? We have our history with Tierney, I really don’t know what he has against us, he has said there is no problems but that cannot be true.
“How he looks at me, I don’t understand it. In England nobody has to clarify these situations, it’s really tricky and hard to understand. My celebration was unnecessary, which is fair but what he said to me when he gave me the yellow card is not ok.”
Liverpool had an incredible opening 25 minutes against Tottenham, scoring three goals in the first quarter. But the game was turned on its head before the break as Ivan Perisic found Harry Kane in the Liverpool box.
The Spurs skipper thumped home a powerful volley to breathe new life into the visitors as Heung-Min Son and Richarlison followed it up with two late goals to level the scoring.
But the away fans weren’t able to celebrate for long as Jota capitalised on a misplaced pass from Lucas Moura to seal the three points for Liverpool. They now take one step closer to Champions League football next season and remain within touching distance of Man Utd in fourth place.